Hacking Windows7 MediaCenter

Not all High Definition content is created equal. We all know that an upscaled DVD can’t match the image clarity of a BluRay disc. Definition, also known as resolution, can even change between movies on BluRay format. You should also know that not all television HD content is created equal. Even if the channel your watching is clearQAM and marked “HD” you may still be receiving content on par with regular analog.

Despite the fact that clearQAM signals from your cable company are digital signals that doesn’t mean they are HD quality. A quick check of your area on the SiliconDust website will show you that not all clearQAM channels are even close to true High Definition Resolutions. In fact a quick look at the Columbus, OH area shows that the majority of stations are being sent out at 480i/p, which is basically analog resolution in a digital wrapper.

To add insult to injury, your cable company’s compression methods can produce image artifacts and other distortions of the original image lessening the image quality even further. Many enthusiasts will be quick to tell you that antenna based digital reception is by far the superior method of bringing HDTV into your home. Content broadcast over the air is uncompressed and so doesn’t include these artifacts and distortions introduces by cable and satellite providers.

However, not all over the air content is sent out in the highest possible format either. Digital over the air is typically broadcast in either 720p or 1080i. Both formats have their advantages, 720p gives smoother motion packing twice the frames but half the resolution of 1080i which provides twice the pixel at half the frames per second. Typically 720p is the preferred resolution for fast action events such as sports, while 1080i would be preferred for most movie and TV series’.

This is where the problem with how American providers have chosen to implement digital distribution comes in. In the United States providers have chosen to distribute all content in a single resolution instead of choosing the appropriate mode for a particular show. Fox and ABC have chosen 720p while most other networks are broadcasting in 1080i. As a side note, this single resolution ideal is also present on the cable/satellite side of things with a listing of resolutions for each channel found on CNET’s HDTV World page.

So remember that not all digital is created equal and even if it says “HD” it may very well not be a High Definition at all. While over the air is certainly the best method for getting a clear HD signal it has it’s own pitfalls, including being limited to only the local stations. In my opinion, the best way to get all your HD is to try out all the options available to you and select the best combination of methods.

For even more information visit hdtvprimer.com.

Written by MHealy | 2 comments

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Tagged As: atsc, clearqam

Setting up your Windows 7 Media Center is easy, making it your own can be easy too. Here are 10 simple steps you can take to make your Media Center experience more complete, more personal, more enjoyable.

1. Add ClearQAM to Your TV Listings
2. Add Custom Apps to Your Extras Library
3. Do It Better – Add Apps with Custom Icons and Details
4. Add MKVs to Your Movie Library
5. Use A Better Movie Library – Media Browser
6. Expand Your Sound from Stereo to Surround
7. Play Your Music in FLAC
8. Check Your Local Weather
9. Listen To Online Radio through Shoutcast
10. Add Boxee Streaming TV to Your Media Center

These 10 simple hacks will create a better Media Center for you and your family to enjoy. Don’t forget to check back to Hack7MC to get the latest hacks for your Windows 7 Media Center.

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Tagged As: boxee, clearqam, codec, extras library, featured, ffdshow, matroska, mkv, movie library, music library, plugins

Peter Near's blog has a post on adding ATSC support to your Media Center box:

First, some background. Like the United States, Canada has decided to transition all television broadcasts from analog to digital. These new digital signals have greater effective range, provide a crystal-clear high definition picture, and as with all over the air network TV broadcasts are free and legal to access. It's worth noting that over the air signals represent the best high-definition picture quality you can get for network television - better than cable and much better than satellite. While high definition is available for a fee via cable and satellite, those high definition channels are subject to ever-increasing compression and picture quality degradation as they try to squeeze more and more content into your subscription. And unlike cable and satellite, over the air broadcasts are not encrypted and can be easily incorporated into a Media Center setup, copied over to your iPod, and are generally easy to use. The United States has nearly completed their digital transition, and will be shutting down the analog broadcasts in February 2009. Canada is well into its transition, with most major markets now broadcasting in digital and 100% of the country switching over to digital by 2011 before we shut down our analog transmitters. Here in Toronto, I can get access to every major US and Canadian network in full high-definition glory using a $40 antenna that I put in my attic.

You can find the rest of the post where you'll be taken through adding ATSC to 7MC using a SiliconDust HDHomerun (a popular clearQAM and ATSC tuner) over on his blog at The Green Button.

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Tagged As: atsc, clearqam, edit channel, listing, tv guide

Adding ClearQAM channels to your Windows7 Media Center can be quite a daunting process. With reguard to previous version of Media Center though it's still quite an improvement as before there was no native support for ClearQAM whatsoever. ClearQAM is generally broadcast in the United States through your cable provider and typically only consisits of the basic broadcast channels you would be able to get through an antenna. The advantage to these channels over regular cable is they come in as HD channels for free.

The first step is to check your tuner manufacturer's website for the most recent drivers for your particular tuner card. If there are newer drivers you may want to install these before going on. The next step is to run a normal TV Tuner setup in Media Center. If you have already run the initial setup you can run the tuner setup again by going to Tasks > Settings > TV > Setup TV Signal. Follow this wizard and be sure you have an available ClearQAM tuner presented during the setup and follow through the TV Channel Scan.

Note: Certain older Hauppauge cards may need a registry fix which can be found here at Mike Wren’s blog.

Often this scan returns "0 channels found", fear not. Once you have completed the wizard, you will most likely need to add these channels to your TV listings manually. Go to Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Edit Channels. Here you will be presented with what is most likely a lengthy list of channels with your basic cable channels numbers and labeled. Just past these neatly organized channels, though, you will find a mess of channels marked simply with numbers and displaying (or not) a small lock beside them. This is the cash crop, these are ClearQam channels.

Once we have come to this point enable the "Show Preview" option on the left and scroll down through the ClearQAM channels until you come to one or more that do not show the lock icon beside them. You can also reffer to SiliconDust's webpage to identify ClearQAM channels you will likely recieve in your area. Selecting the channel name on the right with "Show Preview" enabled should bring up the channel in the background and play audio from the channel. If you don't see/hear this it may be a false positive and you should move on until you find one that comes in correctly.

When you reach a ClearQAM channel that comes in properly mark the checkbox next to the channel number to enable this channel in your TV guide listing. Once you've completed marking all the channels that come in save your settings on the left then we'll move on to setting up the channels in the guide.

Enter your TV guide listing from the main menu and scroll until you come to the channels you just added to your guide listing. You'll notice that none of these channels have names or program data associated with them. To change this click on the channel number on the left and then select "Edit Channel".

Here you can once again refer to your local ClearQAM listing through Silicon Dust's site if the channel numbers match that listing you can simply watch the channels momentarily to determine which channel you are viewing. Then you have the option of Renaming the channel and Editing Listings associated with the channel. Note that when possible you should choose the listing associated with a "DT", "DT2", etc after the callsign as these will give you the listings for the digital channel and include any HD information that is available.

That's it, you should now be able to enjoy your ClearQAM channels from inside Windows 7 Media Center!

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Tagged As: clearqam, edit channel, featured, listing, tv guide